A couple of recent nail art manis: stamping and freehand

Just a quickie! 😀

This is a recent mani I did to help a friend for a competition – using neons – providing an example (though, in my case, it’s normally a What Not To Do example):D

These were all over white, the yellow is Models Own Luis Lemon (love this colour, true highlighter yellow), the green is Color Club Feelin’ Groovy (brighter than that, but my camera hates green) and the orange is Color Club Wham! Pow!. I just dotted on the Wham! Pow! And outlined with a black polish (a franken black but any decent black will do) and some broken dots and lines, added top coat, and done! Neon leopard print. I really liked this, may revisit it when I can keep it on for more than 10 seconds 😀

And the mani I posted on my Facebook page recently in support of Mundo de Unas – and against bullying in any way!

This was Color Club Halo-Graphic and the darker pink is Star Kin R.S:

stamped with Mundo de Unas 10

 

And this is Dance Legend Mars: with a metal and rhinestone leaf decoration from Born Pretty Store

and with stamping.I liked leaving the tips free of stamping, sort of a funky french effect. I also liked this pre clean up, it reminded me of henna hand art! 😀 But, obviously, I had to tidy it up. Ah well. I didn’t take photos of it cleaned up, however. Oops. 😀

I’ll have more Dance Legend polishes in their own post shortly 😀

Have a wonderful day

Ami

 

Random Nail Post – including massage nails and nail polish jewellery

And I mean nothing nefarious by ‘massage nails’: I went on an awesome massage class leaning Lomilomi for a weekend, and well, I learned during my nursing training, and in the massage diploma course, that brightly painted nails can just not look quite right. (well, it’s outright banned in most hospitals, and then your sense of what is appropriate becomes warped, more likely). Anyway! I cut my nails short for obvious reasons, and went with a very soft neutral Color Club pink and stamped a delicate pattern on my accent nail.

Oh, the ring? Why yes, isn’t it gorgeous! My friend Serra from Peacock Pie makes the most gorgeous jewellery using nail polish, and I managed to snaffle this ring off her. And I love it 😀 It goes with everything.

The next is a polish I put on yesterday, to match a bustier I wore out dancing last night. The main colour is a deep red holographic Star Kin polish that I am planning on making available a bit later on in the year, called Holo Sailor. The stamp is done with a black holographic stamping polish I also made just for my own personal use.

The accent nail has two coats of Holo Sailor, and then put on a top coat (well, base coat, it dries slower!) and pressed on some holographic red and matte black square glitter into lines across my nail. I used the high tech method of a small wooden skewer which I dipped in water to pick up the glitters 😀 Topped off with two coats of proper top coat, it was still a bit rough to the touch but I wouldn’t have been able to sand down wood with them, and all glitters stayed firmly in place.

With the bustier – you can see I reversed the colours, but it still worked fine for me 😀

And yes, it was a great night out, good band, good friends, danced for 4 hours. Happy Ami, tired Ami 🙂

Have a great day!

Ami the Happy and Tired 😀

Too many untrieds 1: China Glaze, Color Club, Models Own, Orly, De Sol

I have a few weeks now to try as many of my untried nail polishes as possible, to declutter that corner, and make me feel better about myself, in general 😀 So, lots of swatches to do, photos to take, and long photo heavy posts with not much writing coming up! Please feel free to ignore these completely 🙂

CHINA GLAZE

Electrify – 2 coats & top coat

Stolen from my mothers destash – hyper pretty and sparkly!

OMG A UFO – 2 coats no top coat

LOVE! gorgeous colour (more olive than gold), easy application, streaks disappear when polish dries, nice smooth holographic shimmer.

Holly-Day – 2 coats no top coat

Just a stunning polish. Simple, beautiful, slightly lighter than the photos are making it look. Glossy. Perfect.

MODELS OWN

Beth’s Blue – 2 coats, no top coat

almost a one coater, because of the Rampaging Polish Blob effect, but the plus is it still works out and blobs in the right place, not runny. Gorgeous light periwinkle blue!

Aqua Violet -3 coats, no top coat

very pretty aqua through teal to purple multichrome, love it! (this one is from Sister V’s destash).

Very, very nice

Pinky Brown – 3 coats, no top coat

nice formula, needs three coats because it does go a little patchy, and to be noted, this one has a stronger smell, petrol like. Not over powering to me, but I know some people are really sensitive so I’ll note it! But check out the colour shifts.. pink, brown, gold, green, and I love that the multichrome is a glass fleck, not a chrome 🙂

COLOR CLUB

Eternal Beauty – Halo Hues

Oh, Color Club Halo Hues. How I love thee. Please keep making these. Make ALL THE COLORS. thanks.

2 coats, no top coat. such a nice formula, easy to apply, and fast drying, and that holographic effect is just stunning.

Wham! Pow! 3 coats, no top coat

colour adjusted to show colour of polish, ignore bright red hands! 😀

would need a top coat, it dries matte. Quite jelly-ish, and freaked my camera out! It looks light orange through the lens, but in real life it’s an intense highlighter neon orange, almost shading to red in the direct sunlight. I like it, even though it makes my eyes want to fall out 😀

Feelin’ Groovy – 3 coats, no top coat

Another jelly neon, this one is highlight green :)Moderately sheer, though it dries fast enough not to resent needing another coat or two. Also dries matte, so top coat will be needed. My camera won’t show how bright this is in real life 🙂

Trippie Hippie – 2 coats no top coat

needs a third, but in a hurry 🙂 formula is a little runny, but the polish is shimmery and pretty 😀

Australis – Polish Pots, no name on bottle. 2 coats, no top coat

just a gorgeous shiny deep colour, I adore this!

ORLY

Grape Glitz Mini – 1 coat over the purple Australis polish above

nice and shimmery, not too exciting to me.

Orly mini, no name but I think it’s Rage. 2 coats, no top coat.

Fast drying, and just gorgeous. I may need a full size of this, or make something like it.

Orly It’s Not Rocket Science – 3 coats no top coat

pretty, sparkly, that swampy green base which I like, but I can’t see any blue duochrome on the nail! I might try 2 coats over black sometime, and see if that brings it out.

The only way I could see even a hint of the blue..

Orly Androgynie – 3 coats, no top coat

Lovely! This could be layered over black for a darker base, but I like the fact it looks dark inside, but a deep brown with gold flakes in the sunlight. The larger iridescent rainbow hexes sink, but I turned the bottle upside down (in a jar, it won’t balance on it’s rounded lid) for 10 mins before applying, and they came out fine.

DE SOL

De Sol Starry Night – one coat over Models Own Beth’s Blue.

Gold in a gold tinted base inside, dark purple in the sun.

De Sol Ruby Slipper – one coat over Beth’s Blue.

Silver in a clear base inside, pink in the sunshine.

One thing I’d recommend with these is to apply them in the sunshine, and try two coats 😀 See, I added another coat of Ruby Slippers – in the sun – and it evened right up.

Plus it still looks pretty in the shade 😀

If you’ve made it this far, hats off to you! Well done! More to come 😀

Nail art using eyeballs from KKCenterHK

Yep. Eyeballs 😀

I was allowed to pick another couple of things to review (yay! Thank you!) and I chose these, and some decals you’ll see very soon. I absolutely adore googly eyes, and these reminded me of them, but green (and the pupil bit doesn’t move around).

I made the top of a monster, using Cult Ms. Conduct and put in some rough hairy details with Kleancolor Black. The background green was Color Club Twiggie, with Kleancolor Holo Green on top. I stuck the eyes down into the wet polish, then top coated over them on my right hand. But the top coat made the eyes dull, so I didn’t on this hand 😀

I’d recommend using nail glue as the website suggests, I’d hoped the polish would hold them firm, but I lost one after about an hour. It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Sigh.

This was fun! Looking forward to wearing them again, nice to have something silly on nails to laugh at!

You can check out KKCenterHK’s website here, and I think my code is still valid, EVERYSENSORY which gives 10% off 🙂

Have a great day

Ami

Color Club, Ruby Wing, Halo Hues Mega Spam Swatch Post!

Well, I bit the bullet, in my untried stash are many, many Color Club polishes. I buy them because I love them, and they need to be tried! Pour yourself a cuppa, this may take a while.

Kismet: from the second halo hues collection

Two coats, no top coat, good formula, tiny bit dragging and wants to pool a bit in your cuticles, but nothing extreme, and such a gorgeous, glorious soft colour! Love it!

Check out that holographic flame! HOLY MOLY!

Angel Kiss – two coats, no top coat

From the same Halo Hues collection as Kismet, this is a sea foamy green – and not at all silver!

And just as stunning a holo flame!

Ruby Wing Polishes! (these are made by the same company as Color Club, so I’m including them here 😀 )

Tide: 3 coats, no top coat

Multi iridescent glitters in a slightly pink toned transparent base, which turns a lovely reddish jelly in the sun light.

Gypsy : two coats no top coat

I love the indoor colour so much! It just screams summer to me. The grass green change in the sun is pretty, too, but I do prefer the indoor colour.

Slightly slower change than normal, and I found this one a touch streaky, but ooh I love it, and I’m going to have so much fun layering different glitters over it.

Fate: 2 coats, no top coat

Nice formula! Pretty standard mid shade lilac type purple, goes a few shades darker in sunlight. I am a tad underwhelmed. Ah well!

Almost Famous: 2 coats no top coat

Another one where the lid wasn’t quite on and it spilled and thickened up just enough to be annoying.. and it’s another yellow that has done it! Why is there a trend? Anyway, this is very slightly streaky but not too bad, and it got easier after I added some thinner. Lovely bright, bright yellow!

Peppermint Twist: 3 coats, no top coat

Very, very pink. Blue toned pink. But PINKKKKK!!!

A bit streaky, hence the 3 coats, and does dry matte – here it is with top coat 🙂

Chelsea Girl: 3 coats

I’ve wanted this polish for ages, and when the first coat went on so thin and like a instanto nail stain I thought, why?!  But, it’s a jelly, opaque in three coats, could use a top coat, but it’s a lovely colour. So, that’s why 😀 Bonus, even though I didn’t have it on long and would definitely recommend a base coat, there doesn’t appear to be any staining on removal 🙂

Soft as Cashmere: 3 coats no top coat

greyed beige crelly – doesn’t sound that appealing, doesn’t look all that appealing on me, though it’s ok. Work appropriate. Safe. Will be a great base for different non-safe glitters 😀

See? with one coat of Kunimitsu One Scary Outfit

Ok, I think we’re at about the half way mark. Need to stretch? Toilet break? Another cuppa? Scroll really fast? I understand 😀

Flair: 2 coats, no top coat

Lovely red/orange with gold shimmer 🙂

Fly With Me:  3 coats no top coat

A completely different colour on my nails than in the bottle! Looks very sparkly swampy green, pretty, yes, but the blue tint/shift isn’t visible at all. Sadness.

But never fear! THIS is two coats (no top coat) over a plain black polish.

This. Yes, this.

Nouveau Vintage: 2 coats no top coat

What a pretty polish! Love the bronze/copper/green shimmers!

Berry and Bright: 2 coats, no top coat

Sparkly deep fuchsia pink in the sunlight, deeper maroon red with subtle gold duochrome shift in the shade. Lovely!

Personal Sylist: 3 coats no top coat

A bit watery, and a tiny bit streaky in effect, because the shimmer makes it almost a chrome. Very lovely blue/purple duochrome, and very shimmery in the sunlight!

By Design: 3 coats no top coat

A little streaky, evens out nicely. A gorgeous muted deep plum purple – very dark, but not black at all!

Glitter Wonderland:  2 coats no top coat

Inside, this is so not my colour 😀 Red toned purples and I just don’t get along. In the sun, however, I’d forgive it anything… wow.

Winter Affair:  2 coats no top coat

Check this out! It’s so beautiful! I am totally in love with this polish. Plus all these fumes are making me very, very happy. Wheeee! Off to get some fresh air, thanks for sticking with me (if, indeed, you have!)

Have a wonderful day with bluebirds and flying purple mini elephants and… ok, definitely fresh air time.

Ami 😀

Color Club: Cloud Nine – Swatches and Drool

In a hurry, but didn’t want to go bare-nailed, or worry about a base coat. What to do? HOLOGRAPHIC! This is Color Club Cloud Nine, and as far as I am concerned, Color Club make some of the best holographic polishes out there.

Two easy coats, no top coat, perfect formula, no dragging or patchiness or flooding. Just paint and go. Well, wait a few minutes, it did take about 5 minutes to dry. But that’s seriously No Time At All when it comes to polish land!

I’m testing out various lights now, we’re officially in Dark Time of the year, and I am really fed up with my photo and lighting quality, so today, the day after I applied it, I have been taking photos of this polish.

And, even with no top coat, it’s almost perfect. Unheard of, for me! I have got Seche Rebuild on (on advice from another Polish Addict, so that may help with the wear time, I’m not sure).

This is my perfect shade of pink, pretty and flattering without being girly or washed out, and the holographic effect is amazing.

I love this. I seriously do.

Have a great day!

Ami 🙂

Nail Art Stuff

horseriding mani!

Pinky: Nfu Oh 67, 3 coats. Ring finger Color Club Pardon my French (I think, no label!) stamped with some horses from my first ever proper stamping plates, whee! Stamped using a-england Excalibur, and BYS Black Satin. Middle nail has a franken pink holo with silver blings, and ring finger and thumb have Star Kin (ours, yay!) Grayceful.

And then, winter happened, and no horseriding. Poos. But it’s funny because some of these horses have no heads. Not the stamps fault, my fault, but it’s great 😀

Winter mani – all except accent nail: Coral Colors Jayded something (no sticker), stamped with Color Club Worth the Risque – aiming for a frozen, icy lake effect 😀

Then my accent nail has two coats of Boe Beauty Red Hot polish, which is sponged with Cult Nails Annalicious and Nfu Oh 74 , then stamped with BYS Black Satin for the outline of the fire. The ‘sparks’ were sponged on Vivid Lacquer Pumpkin Hangover.

Sad Panda Nails: Three coats of Boe Beauty Ballet Pink, stamped with panda stamps, and bamboo.

I’ve started using a sticky stamper, which is silicon and very sticky and works brilliantly, BUT… it falls out of the stamper, and then when I use it on it’s own it distorts the image. I’ll glue it in, I think, I really like it, just to get around that design. 🙂 The green is China Glaze Jolly Holly, the black is China Glaze Liquid Leather, I have two black blingies for the panda’s ears on my little fingernail, and it’s all topped off with L.A. Colors Rapid Dry top coat.

And a stronger stamping pattern, using China Glaze Liquid Leather again as the black stamping polish, and Mmmm Nails Between the Buns (that NAME!) as the base coat.

I loved this… so much it was still on my nails two days later. I KNOW. 😀 It reminds me of very elegant curtains. Yes. I do love it, I keep looking at it, I think stamping over a multichrome nail polish will be a win for me, as can’t lose with a multichrome anyway.

And another quick one that was an attempt to unfug a polish – Zoya Akyra, just a weird colour on me. I stamped fish on my nails, using A-England Excalibur, and green ‘water weeds’ using A-England St George (too faint to see, sadly).

And added a nice coat of piCture pOlish splash for added aquatic effect, plus top coat, MUCH BETTER!

And last for now, before this becomes a monster post with a life of it’s own, this was a mani I wore for my very first protest, against the testing of legal highs on animals. GRRRRR.

Cannot believe we have to protest this, because the government wants to make animal testing of dangerous PARTY drugs mandatory. Words can’t express how angry I am about that!

Anyway, this was a base of Model’s Own – in Little Lemon, two coats over Kleancolor White. I’d show swatches on it’s own, but the white base was so streaky that it was really ugly 😀 Whoops!

And I stamped puppies, cats and paw prints over it, using China Glaze Liquid Leather, and top coat, which smeared the stamping polish, whoops. I did colour correct these photos to show how neon yellow this polish is, so ignore the greenish fingers :D. This is an amazing neon polish! 😀

Have a wonderful day

Ami

Nail Mail in JULY! WHEEE!

I got some nail mail! Yay! It’s been quite a long time since I’ve got any polish in the mail, and it’s soooo exciting 😀

This was my haul from Harlow & Co. I love Harlow & Co, but I have noticed their shipping has slowed down a lot lately. Hopefully that isn’t the norm, and others have better stories. I still adore their polishes, and their site!

 

From left to right: Kolt High Definition – Golden Chip, models own – Beth’s Blue, models own – Little Lemon, KB Shimmer – Spring Training, Color Club – Kismet, Nubar – Jewel, Nubar – On the Radar.

Whhheee! I need to be able to wear my untrieds faster… need more nails 😀

Have a wonderful day (it’s all Springlike here and I’m HAPPY! SUN!)

Ami 🙂

Nail Polish Spam – bigger companies :)

E.g. not independent companies! Here are a bunch of photos for you… and also for me, to clear my desk at long last 😀

Here’s another pretty polish from Megan (seriously, chicky, do you have any ugly polishes? These are GORGEOUS!) this is Sinful Colors Timbleberry, one of my favourite types of colours, that almost neon coral pink.

Two lovely even coats, no top coat 🙂 I also added Color Club Snowflakes to my accent nail, and tips. Snowflake is a lovely green/blue/gold iridescent hex polish in a clear base, but I couldn’t get any good photos of them, they just kind of look like holes in the polish. Not so good.

But, in real life, this was quite pretty indeed!

Next up is Orly Galaxy Girl, which is even prettier on the nail than in the bottle.

This is two coats, plus Misa BREAKneck topcoat.

The colours shifted between an auburn brown, teal/blue, and a gorgeous pinkish purple.

I didn’t think this would be as multi-chromatic on the nail, but it was more so!  Love this polish, easy, quick, and stunning. There hasn’t been one from this range (I believe it was the Out of this World range from Orly a few years ago) that I haven’t loved. Just straight out adore. The bottles (large!) the handles (rubbery, soft, perfect grip), the brushes (great!) the polish itself (stunning). Sigh. Thank you, Orly, for making these polishes. Please make more. I love them.

And here is Boe Beauty Ballet Pink. My Sister C bought me two Boe Beauty nail polishes for my birthday, and they were great, but I’ve never seen this brand here before. Then, lo! A stack of them in The Warehouse for $2 each! Allllll right! I got Black (which is black, two coater, nice), red, which I’ll swatch later, and this one.

 

I thought this would be a pale pink, but it’s more a very pale peach – I don’t have anything like this, and it’s really pretty.

Trouble is, it’s also really streaky – I guess the payoff for being not sheer, is streaks. It’s quite a harsh soft colour, if that makes any sense? Not twink like, but definitely polish, not a natural colour at all. I really like it. Woe on the streaks though.

This is three coats plus top coat.

KKCenterHK Review – Plastic Stamping Plate

*Press sample!* In case people think I can be bought for nail polish and nail products… er… I’d love to be offended by that 😀 However, I can assure you that my opinions here will always be genuine, or so help me I’ll stop doing this. 😀

So, the second of the two items sent to me for review by KKCenterHK (heaps of other stuff on here too, not just nail supplies, but lots of beauty goodies, wigs, some clothing etc), was this plastic stamping plate, retailing for US $8.65 – which can be found at this link here:  I found this little round soft plastic circle intriguing because it is a stamper that removes the need for a scraper. One less step? Yeah, o.k, I’m keen to try that!

This was my first attempt with playing with it, and I used the floral/swirly nail tip pattern, dropping the corner slightly to give a diagonal effect. Yeah, I totally misplaced where it was on my nail, but I did like the look, so I kept it and am now pretending that I meant to do it. *cough*

Polishes: two coats of Color Club Abyss, and I stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Fuchsia, and some small pink blingies. At this point, I’d paint the pattern, and stamp-stamp-stamp-stamp on a scrap piece of paper, and when the excess had been removed I’d roll my fingernail over it. This worked, but I made it work better later, and I’ll explain soon 🙂

I really did like this pattern, I’d do it again, for sure. And top coat it! It was quite nice and fresh, I think.

Then for my second one, I chose the scale type pattern, which is a full nail one.

Now, by full nail it’s probably o.k for short nails, it just managed to cover most of my shorter nails, and I certainly don’t have long nails.

And, again, there is some evidence of wonkiness. I am a real beginner to stamping, I’ve wanted to do it for ages, but have no skillz yet, please blame the wonkiness on me, not the plate.

The base colour was Essie Coat Azure, and I stamped with Color Club Blue Heaven, which was lots of subtle until the light hit it, when those holographic rainbows made it look like a real fish 😀

So, tips and thoughts!

*instead of stamping the stamper onto the paper, swipe it, instead. Just wipe it back and forward on a (not already wiped on) bit of paper until all the excess has gone, it’s really quick and very effective, and the lines are clearer.

*rolling your nail over the stamp rather than the stamp over your nail means you can line it up better…. mostly 😀

*this is such a brilliant idea. I wish they had a few more patterns, there are quite a few of them on the KKCenterHK site, but not too many different ones. Make more! I do have my eye on the one with the little bird and the dots though, that’s very cute 😀

Thanks to the good people at KKCenterHK for giving me the chance to play with your products, so much fun.

Have a wonderful day

Ami 🙂